The people in the 2nd photo from the right are BLINDERMAN's. Who are the people on the far-right?
RESEARCH INFO & LINKS
RESEARCH CODES
NAME |
SOUNDEX |
DAITCH-MOKOTOFF |
Engelson |
E524 |
065846 |
Friedman |
F635 |
793660 |
Janowitz/Janovich |
J512/J532 |
467400 / 467500 |
Katz |
K320 |
540000 |
Levine |
L150 |
876000 |
Pomerantz |
P565 |
769640 |
Radisch |
R320 |
934000 |
Rubin |
R150 |
976000 |
Safer |
S160 |
479000 |
Silbergleit |
S416 |
487958 |
Streleckaja/Streletski |
S364 |
298510 / 298451 |
Strelser |
S364 |
298490 |
Weller |
W460 |
789000 |
Yanovich/Yanowitz |
Y532/Y512 |
167400 / 167500 |
Zemser |
Z526 |
464900 |
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Common Spelling Variations
W is often substitued for V
H is often pronounced CH
Y is often substitued for I
SON is generally the same as SOHN
N is often inserted before S
OE is commonly the same as E
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Why Date Information May Vary
There is no way to know who gave information to a census taker. If the census enumerator came around during the work day, the adults, or at least the head of household, would not have been at home (unless they were unemployed or not at work that day per the census information.) The information could have been given by the spouse, a child, a neighbor, an elderly relative...
- They may have lied intentionally for some personal benefit – e.g., to meet the residency requirement for becoming a citizen comes to mind or to disassociate themselves from some event that happened in the year they really immigrated.
- They may have had a distrust of government officials, and did not want to answer truthfully.
- They may not have understood the question, and perhaps gave the year they became a citizen rather than the year they arrived.
- They may not have known the date they arrived.
- Then there was the language barrier - whatever year they said may have been misunderstood by the enumerator, or could have just been written it down incorrectly.
- It is logical to assume the date given in an earlier census might be more correct as it was closer to the date they arrived, so less likely to be forgotten. When looking for passenger arrivals, we generally used this date as a starting point. If we didn't find anything, we started with the date of the earliest document we had for them and worked backwards from there.
- There were many spelling variations on names. In many cases, the person who collected the information just wrote down the name the way he thought it should be spelled or based on how it sounded. In other cases, people changed the spelling of their name over time.
Check out to see what happened on a specific date.
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TRACING GENETIC ROOTS
DNA testing in the field of genealogy is relatively new. The hope is that genetic tests can break barriers in family history. It is said that some of the tests can determine relationships with a 99.9% degree of accuracy. Given this, I have joined ranks with a group that calls itself the POMERANTZ COUSINS CLUB. They are descendants of David and Miriam Pomerantz and so far, we have been unable to make a connection between their family and ours. However, they have submitted DNA samples for testing, as have I. Now we await the results. If you are interested in adding your sample to the mix, we have used the services of Family Tree DNA - Genealogy by Genetics. Ltd. They are based in Houston and more information can be obtained via their website at: http://www.familytreedna.com/. I will update this website with results of these tests as soon as they are availbable.
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SOME USEFUL & INTERESTING REFERENCES MATERIALS & LINKS
NOTE: Clicking on any of the links below will take you out of this site. If you use them, use your BACK button to return to this site.
BOOKS
Alive From the Ashes by Avraham Harshalom; 1990, Milo Publishing House, Ltd., Tel Aviv --- The story of the Pruzany ghetto from its inception to its liquidation - 1939-1943.
Journey to a Nineteenth Century Ghetto - the memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik; originally published in Yiddish in 1913; Copyright 2002 by Warren State University Press --- offers a panoramic description of the author's experiences growing up in Kamieniec Litewski (kamenets-Litovsk).
Pinkas Pruzhany and its Vicinity - Pruzhany Yizkor book (memorial book)--- project that chronicles six communities that perished in the Holocaust. NOTE: Parts of this book are available online at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cpsa/pinkas1983/cover_page.htm
Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto - 1997-1998, Bullfinch Press; Little, Brown & Company Inc. ; US Holocaust Memorial Museum Project ---NOTE: This is also available as a History Channel video titled: Kovno Ghetto: A Buried History and is available through Amazon.com in VHS.
The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage - by Arthur Koestler 1976 --- Traces the history of the ancient Khazar Empire, a major but almost forgotten power in Eastern Europe, which in the Dark ages became converted to Judaism. Khazaria was finally wiped out by the forces of Ghengis Khan, but evidence indicates that the Khazars, themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western Jewry.
The Wind of the Khazars - by Marek Halter - Trade paperback Edition , 2006 --- a fictional (but historically accurate) account of an entire warrior nation converted to Judiasm.
WEB LINKS
Listed below are links to many web sites you may find useful in your quest for answers about our family's history. To report any broken links, please EMAIL ME.
Link categories:
- Genealogical Resources within the US
- Foreign Resources
- Shtetl-associated Sites
- Foreign Museums
- Yiddish Resources
- Cemetery Information
- Media
- Other Useful Sites
GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES (within the U.S. )
American Jewish Archives: www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/index.html
Ancestry.com (pay-for-service): www.ancestry.com
Avotaynu (publishes works on Jewish Genealogy): www.avotaynu.com
Castle Garden : http://castlegarden.org
Center for Jewish History: www.cjh.org
Cimorelli Immigration Manifests Online: www.cimorelli.com/safe/shipmenu.htm
Cyndi's List: www.cyndislist.com
Ellis Island Site – where you can view records of immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island from 1892-1924. See actual ship manifest, photos and more. www.ellisislandrecords.org/
Family History Library (LDS): www.familysearch.org
The Feinstein Center for American Jewish History: www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr
FreeCEN (UK census records 1841-1891): http://freecen.rootsweb.com
Galveston Immigration Database (at Texas Seaport Museum):
www.tsm-elissa.org/immigration-main.htm
HIAS (The Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) Family Finder: www.hias.org/Find_Family/listings.html
International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies: www.iajgs.org
ICD (International Classification of Diseases): www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html
Italian Genealogical Group (Grooms, Marriage, Death Indexes et al): www.italiangen.org
Jewish Family History Foundation: www.jewishfamilyhistory.org
JewishGen: www.jewishgen.org
Jewish Genealogical Society of New York: www.jgsny.org
The Jewish History Resource Center: www.dinur.org
Jewish Records Indexing-Poland: www.jri-poland.org
Jewish Web Index: www.jewishwebindex.com
Leo Baeck Institute: www.lbi.org
Library of Congress: www.loc.gov
Morton Allan Directory One Step Ship Search: www.stevemorse.org/ellis/cimorelli.html
National Archives: www.nara.gov
Naturalization Index, Eastern District (Brooklyn 1865-1956): http://italiangen.org/EDNSEARCH.STM
New York City Municipal Archives: www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/vitalrecords/home.shtml
New York Public Library, Dorot Jewish Division: www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/jewish.html
New York Public Library, Genealogical Research: www.nypl.org/research/chss/lhg/research.html#census
New York Public Library, Yizkor Books: www.nypl.org/research/chss/jws/yizkorbooks_intro.cfm
Online Polish Directories at the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/rr/european/pdir/poldir.html
Online Searchable Death Index & Records (A Genealogy Guide): www.deathindexes.com
Polish Jewish Society of America: www.pgsa.org
Repositories of Primary Sources: www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
Routes to Roots Foundation: www.rtrfoundation.org
Roots – contains a link to the Social Security Death Index: www.rootsweb.com
Search Engine for Online Historical Directories: www.kalter.org/search.php
Selective Service System: History and Records: www.sss.gov/records.htm
Social Security Death Index Search: http://www.rootsweb.com/
Social Security Online: www.ssa.gov
Steven P. Morse: www.stevemorse.org
U.S. Census Bureau: www.census.gov
The USGenWeb Project - a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet Web sites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States . The Project is non commercial and fully committed to free access of genealogy information for everyone. Organization of the site is by county and state, providing links to all the state Web sites which, in turn, provide gateways to the county. The USGenWeb Project also sponsors important Special Projects at the national level. /www.usgenweb.com/
US Holocaust Museum Library - www.ushmm.org/research/library
Webpages by Steven Morse – a VERY useful aid for searching immigration and other records http://stevemorse.org/ (same as Steven P. Morse above)
Yad Vashem: www.yadvashem.org
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Archives and Library: www.yivoinstitute.org/archlib/archlib_fr.htm
FOREIGN RESOURCES
Argentina :
AMIA ( Buenos Aires, Argentina Cemetery Lookup): www.amia.org.ar/difuntos.asp
Archivo General de la Nacion (General Archives of the Nation): www.mininterior.gov.ar/agn/
Asociacion de Geneologia Judia de Argentina (Argentinian Association of Jewish Genealogy): www.agja.org.ar
CEMLA (Argentina Immigration Lookup): www.cemla.com/paginas/c_principal.htm
Direccion Nacional de Migraciones (National Immigration Services): www.migraciones.gov.ar
Registro Civil (Registry of Civil Status and Vital Records): www.registrocivil.gov.ar
Belarus:
Belarus Archives: www.archives.gov.by/eindex.htm
Canada :
Census of Canada, 1911: www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1911/index-e.html
Library and Archives Canada: www.collectionscanada.ca
Montreal City Directories (1842-1950): http://bibnum2.bnquebec.ca/bna/lovell/index.html
Ontario Jewish Archives: www.ontariojewisharchives.org
Israel :
The Avraham Harman Institute for Contemporary Jewry, Jerusalem: http://icj.huji.ac.il
CAHJP (The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People), Jerusalem: http://sites.huji.ac.il/archives
Douglas E. Goldman Jewish Genealogy Center (at Beth Hatesutfoth): www.bh.org.il/Genealogy/index.aspx
The Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem: www.hum.huji.ac.il/cja
Center for Research on Dutch Jewry, Jerusalem: http://dutchjewry.huji.ac.il
The Central Zionist Archives: www.zionistarchives.org.il
Chevra Kadisha, Tel Aviv (in Hebrew): http://www.kadisha.biz/
The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Centre, Jerusalem: http://rosenzweig.huji.ac.il/
Holocaust: www.holocaust.co.il
Israel Genealogy Society: www.isragen.org.il
The Jewish History Resource Center ( Dinur Center, Hebrew University), Jerusalem: www.hum.huji.ac.il/Dinur
Jewish National & University Library, Jerusalem: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/
Lekket (World Union of Jewish Studies article search): www.lekket.com
Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem: www.leobaeck.org
The Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem: http://jewish.huji.ac.il
Mass Jewish Migration Database: http://mjmd.haifa.ac.il/
Mt. Scopus Library, Jerusalem: www.mslib.huji.ac.il/main/siteNew/?langId=1
Poland :
Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw: www.iam.pl/en/html
Biblioteca Narodowa w Warszawie (The National Library in Warsaw): www.bn.org.pl
Center for Jewish Culture, Krakow: www.judaica.pl
Central Military Archives for Polish Army (in Polish): www.caw.wp.mil.pl
Culture.pl (from Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw): www.culture.pl
Sienkiewicz's High School Graduates List (Czestochowa High School) 1885-present (in Polish): www.sieniu.risp.pl/absolwenci
Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage (English version): www.fodz.pl/index.php?l=0
Historical Sites of Jewish Warsaw: http://jewish.sites.warszawa.um.gov.pl
The Jewish Community of Poland: www.jewish.org.pl
Jewish Families Database (index of individuals of Moses confession, who survived Holocaust and are connected with Krakow):
http://archiwum.malopolska.pl/english/rodzinyzydowskie.php
Jewish Historic Institute: www.jewishinstitute.org.pl
Jews of the Old Lodz: www.lodzjews.com/indexus.htm
Poland and Danzig Business Directory (1930): www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=11649
Poland State Archives: www.archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=43
Poland State Archives Holdings Search: www.archiwa.gov.pl/?CIDA=376
Polish Center for Holocaust Research: www.holocaustresearch.pl/index1(en).htm
The Polish Jewish Forum: http://fzp.jewish.org.pl/english/engind.html
Warsaw Ghetto Internet Database: www.warszawa.getto.pl/en/site
Russia :
ArcheoBiblioBase "Archives in Russia" : http://www.iisg.nl/~abb/
Centre ORT-Gunzburg, St. Petersburg: www.ort.spb.ru/(Eng)/2nd_ort.htm
Russian State Historic Archives: http://www.feefhs.org/blitz/blitzfa.html
Russian State Library: www.rsl.ru
The State Historical Public Library of Russia: www.shpl.ru
SHTETL-ASSOCIATED SITES
JewishGen (ShtetLinks): www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org
Jewish Records Indexing - Poland - www.jewishgen.org/jri-pl/jriplweb.htm
Memorial Book of Kamenets-Litovsk, Zastavye & Colonies - www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Kamenets/Kamenets.html
Multiple shtetls/towns/cities: www.zchor.org
Pruzhany Uyezd Research Society - www.purs.org
Wizna: www.wizna.com
FOREIGN MUSEUMS
Belarus :
Marc Chagall Museum, Vitebsk: www.chagall.vitebsk.by
Israel :
Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center : www.babylonjewry.org.il/new/english
Beth Hatefutsoth, Museum of the Jewish People, Tel Aviv: www.bh.org.il
Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem: www.blmj.org/TheMuseu/Musmain.html
Ghetto Fighters' Musem, Western Galilee: www.gfh.org.il
Israel Museums Guide: http://www.ilmuseums.com/default.asp
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: www.imj.org.il
The Memorial Museum of the Hungarian Speaking Jewry: www.hungjewmus.org.il
The Palmach Museum, Tel Aviv: www.palmach.org.il
The U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art, Jerusalem: www.jija.org
Lithuania :
The Museum of Genocide Victims, Vilnius: www.genocid.lt/Muziejus/eng/muzeum.htm
Museums of Lithuania: http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/panorama.en.htm
The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, Vilnius: www.jmuseum.lt
Poland:
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oswiecim: www.auschwitz.org.pl
Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow: www.galiciajewishmuseum.org/en/muzeum.html
Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw: www.jewishmuseum.org.pl
National Museum of Poland, Warsaw: www.mnw.art.pl
Warsaw Uprising Museum, Warsaw: www.1944.pl
Russia :
Jewish Museum of Yaroslavl: http://ceulmad.yaroslavl.ru/index_english.htm
YIDDISH RESOURCES
All About Jewish Theatre: www.jewish-theatre.com
Der Bavebter Yid: www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/bavebter
The Dora Teitelboim Center for Yiddish Culture: www.yiddishculture.org
First Yiddish Language Conference, Czernowitz, 1908: www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Tshernovits/Tshernovits.html
Folksbiene Yiddish Theater: www.folksbiene.org
International Institute of Social History (Yiddish Collection): www.iisg.nl/collections/yiddish/index.html
National Yiddish Book Center : www.yiddishbookcenter.org
Shtetl: Yiddish Language and Culture: www.ibiblio.org/yiddish
Vilna Yiddish Institute: www.yiddishvilnius.com
The Workmen's Circle: www.circle.org/wccjl.htm
The World of Yiddish: http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il
Yiddish Forward: http://yiddish.forward.com
Yiddish Radio Project: www.yiddishradioproject.org
Yiddish Stuff: www.haruth.com/Yiddish_Stuff.htm
Yiddish Voice: www.yv.org
CEMETERY INFORMATION
AMIA ( Buenos Aires, Argentina Cemetery Lookup): www.amia.org.ar/difuntos.asp
Find A Grave: www.findagrave.com
International Jewish Cemetery Project: www.jewishgen.org/cemetery
Jewish Cemetery Database Project Germany: www.jcdp.de
Jewish Cemetery Expedition and Archive: www.ipace.org
Jewish Data (pay-for-service): www.jewishdata.com
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR): www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery
Polish Jewish Cemetery Restoration Project: www.pjcrp.org
MEDIA
Forward: www.forward.com
Haaretz: www.haaretz.co.il
Yiddish Forward (Forverts): http://yiddish.forward.com
Jerusalem Post: www.jpost.com
Polskie Radio (Radio Polonia): www.radio.com.pl/polonia/gb
Warsaw Voice (English version): www.warsawvoice.pl
OTHER USEFUL SITES
American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center: www.redcross.org/services/intl/holotrace/index.html
Belarus Consulate, New York: www.belarusconsul.org
Belarus Embassy, Washington, D.C.: www.belarusembassy.org
Cyrillic Script: www.ia.net/~jcarroll/privet/script.html
David Dickerson's "Jewish Culture and History": www.ddickerson.igc.org/judaica.html
DNA Shoah Project: www.dnashoah.info
European Association for Jewish Studies: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~eajs/
European Council of Jewish Communities: www.ecjc.org
Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies: www.feefhs.org
Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, Inc.: www.hdec.com
Holocaust Survivors' Network: http://isurvived.org
Jewish-American Hall of Fame: www.amuseum.org/jahf
JewishEncyclopedia.com: www.jewishencyclopedia.com
Jewish Heritage Online Magazine: www.jhom.com
Jewish Telegraph: www.jewishtelegraph.com
Jewish Virtual Library: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Learning about the Holocaust through Art: http://art.holocaust-education.net
National Foundation for Jewish Culture: www.jewishculture.org
National Polish American-Jewish American Council: www.npajac.org/021118/notes_20021118.html
Organization of Partisans, Underground Fighters and Ghetto Rebels in Israel: www.thepartizans.org
Polish Cultural Institute: www.polishculture-nyc.org
Polish Embassy: www.polandembassy.org
Polish Language Website: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu
Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism (at the Jewish Theological Seminary): www.jtsa.edu/research/ratner
Refdesk.com: www.refdesk.com
Remember.org: http://remember.org
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation: www.rslfoundation.org
Sholom Aleichem Secondary School, Vilnius, Lithuania: www.jewishschool.lt/index.htm
SomethingJewish: www.somethingjewish.co.uk
Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive Virtual Cinema: www.spielbergfilmarchive.org.il/kv/5cat.html
Survey of Historic Jewish Monuments in Poland (1995): www.heritageabroad.gov/reports/doc/survey_poland.pdf
Survivors of the Shoah (Visual History Foundation): www.vhf.org
Time and Date: www.timeanddate.com
Together (American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their descendants): www.americangathering.com
U.S. Embassy in Belarus: http://minsk.usembassy.gov/html/consular_services.html
Volunteers for Israel: www.vfi-usa.org
Yale University Library Judaica Collection: www.library.yale.edu/judaica
Yarzheit.com: www.yarzheit.com
To connect to COUSIN CONNECT:
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DISCLAIMER: THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS. WE ARE NOT SURE THIS INFORMATION IS ENTIRELY CORRECT, AND WE KNOW IT IS INCOMPLETE. |